Twist beam axles are used on some vehicles, typically as a means of packaging a suspension while minimizing intrusion into the passenger compartment. A typical application of a twist beam axle is on the rear wheels of a vehicle. The twist beam axle typically includes a U-shaped or V-shaped bar that extends between the control arm for the driver's side rear wheel to the control arm for the passenger's side rear wheel. A typical twist beam axle is shown at 100 in FIG. 1. The twist beam axle 100 is shown connected between two control arms 101a and 101b. The twist beam axle 100 includes a twist beam 102 that is V-shaped in cross-section and a stabilizer bar 104 in the interior of the V of the twist beam 102. The stabilizer bar 104 may be welded to the interior of the V.
The properties of the stabilizer bar 104 are typically selected to provide the twist axle 100 with a selected torsional stiffness to ‘tune’ the twist axle 10 for use on a particular model of vehicle. In some cases, the stabilizer bar is made from solid bar material. In other cases, the stabilizer bar 104 is made from hollow tubing. In either case, the resultant twist axle is relatively heavy, and is relatively expensive to manufacture.